The Royal Navy carriers retreated into the Indian Ocean, still in range of our Nells, which got chewed by Sea Hurricanes and Martlets, but far enough to pose no threat to Sumatra. Are they going for good or will they be back, I don’t know. The alert in Medan and Georgetown has not been lifted.

So far, I did not manage to sink enemy carriers, but I have been successful in making them harmless. A few weeks ago the US CV raid on Japan was detected before it closed, and yesterday, the RN CV were spotted and sailed away.

This tells something about my opponent, I believe. He values surprise, and will retreat once spotted. This suggests air searches are key weapons. So long I can frighten the enemy away from my coasts, I am safe.

The kill

In the Gulf of Carpentaria, our cruisers caught the transports we had been monitoring for several days. I had put Jakes (my longer range search planes) on night duty, and they apparently cause my ships to react. The enemy task force had ten light cargoes, escorted by three US APD. During the night, the escort did a good job protecting the cargoes, but three destroyers are no match for three cruisers, and two APD were sunk.

The next morning, Petes (now on day patrol) detected the enemy again, and our lookouts spotted the ships and allowed a long lance attack on ADP McKean, the remaining escort, before she even knew we were around.

The rest of the battle was as unfair as a light cargo vs cruiser engagement can be. All thirteen allied ships were sunk. There were no reports of lost troops, so the convoy must have brought supplies to Darwin.

Our ships are in good shape. Almost no damage was done by the enemy, and we are sailing back to Koepang to rearm, while a bombardment task force is sailing towards Darwin. Now that we know enemy carriers are probably around the West Coast and off northern Sumatra, we can afford some mischief in northern Australia.

The enemy retreated towards Wuchow. This is good, we’re going there too…

The capture of Kukong opens the railway to Hengyang, and communications between Central China and Canton. It also further isolates Changsha. The KMT now holds nine bases : Kashgar, where we should arrive in a week, Chungking ang Changsha, both under siege, Tsuyung, that should fall soon (less than 50 AV left), and Kunming, which just was reinforced, and the “southern four”, Tuyun, Liuchow, Wuchow and Kweilin.

Empire building

Japan is on the move, right now. In the Pacific, we are building our rear bases. The Marianas have become my staging area. I have about700 AV there, mostly small garrison units that will be dispatched to various islands. They will be reinforced with two infantry groups bought in Japan. The Guards Brigade and an infantry division are now boarding in Tokyo, and will serve as the permanent garrison in the Marianas.

The Marshalls are being reinforced and supplied. This will take a while, since it is further from the Home Islands, but I think they are safe now.

New Guinea is patched. An infantry regiment arrived in Hansa Bay, Lae is garrisoned, Gasmati supplied, and Rabaul is becoming a very large base. I have a few AKE disbanded in small islands in the area, and am waiting for some surface forces, which will probably be based in Ontong java or Manus. The serious reinforcements will arrive from Luzon, once the place falls. The 38th arrived in Bataan today, the 18th will be there tomorrow. We could capture Bataan very soon.

Around Timor, Koepang is becoming my front line hub, with lots of planes (but no air HQ) units, ships, and supplies. I have AKE in neighbouring islands. I am also dispatching small surface vessels to Ambon and Merauke, in the hope of intercepting other convoys from Eastern Australia. I am not sure the enemy will use this convoy lane again, though, and I am considering a coup de main on Exmouth or Port Hedland.

Burma is being steadily reinforced. The battle for Port Blair seems to have delayed the enemy offensive here. This is good. I don’t think the Allies can do much there before I finish China, and the place swarms with big and combat hardened divisions.

A light cruiser squadron bombarded Port Blair. Two British patrol boats were sunk in the port. Dauntlesses hit CL Nagara. She will survive, but will need some yard time. The bombardment destroyed a number of Dauntlesses in return.

Another task force was detected west of Darwin. The surface force returning from the Gulf of Carpentaria has been sent to investigate, we are a bit low on ammunition, but against a transport TF like the one we sank yesterday, we should be fine. A larger surface group is sailing from Koepang, just in case.

Lucky Madang

Reinforcements are arriving in Hansa Bay and Madang. Today, Marauders from Port Moresby tried to attack unloading ships. Rufes and Zeroes were on CAP, and three Marauders we shot down. No plane made it to the ships. I am expecting more of the same tomorrow, I have fighters…

First day in Kunming

Our first deliberate attack reduced the forts to level two, but failed to achieve 1:1 odds. This is looking good, but it will take some time. I am attacking again in Tsuyung tomorrow. I believe it is ripe. The capture of Tsuyung would free another division for the siege of Kunming.

Ready for Bataan

Both the 38th and the 18th infantry divisions are now in Bataan. I have about 1800 AV, against less than 600 enemies, unsupplied, without forts. We are attacking tomorrow, and chances are high Bataan will fall on first try. This would be a very good thing as it would free four divisions, all of them experiences, two at full strength.

I had Mike Solli visiting here, and Greyjoy occasionally posts, if now Gräfin Zeppelin subscribes, I might end up a very proud and arrogant JFB. But welcome Gräfin, ten thousand years, and hope you enjoy the sad story (it will end sadly, I’m sure) of this clueless JFB.

May 22nd 1942

Bataan

This is the big headline for today. We captured the base on first try.

That’s 5000 enemy squads and device gone for good, almost a thousand VP, and victory ratio now well past 3:1, and on our side, four divisions, tanks, artillery and assorted engineers freed for operations nearer to the front. I know I should be happy about this. But this sort of victory means decisions, I hate decisions, it looks like work.

So, what should we do with those four divisions and assorted warlike stuff?

With China about to fall, there is no point reinforcing Singapore or Burma. I will send my Kwantung boys spank the Indian and fend off the Brit in a couple of months, once the Qing imperial rule over the Middle Kingdom is restored. I don’t intend to send those divisions to the Marianas either, units bought from Japan are on their way. This leaves two fronts, waterfronts actually, the Indian Front, from Sumatra to Timor, and the Pacific Front, from Manus to Tulagi to the Marshalls. With strong enemy presence around Port Moresby, and in New Caledonia, the Pacific seems more in want of troops. On the other hand, I already have a division in Rabaul, and don’t intend to fight in the Solomons.

Also, my troops can be used in three roles. As front line units, fighting in the jungles of new Guinea, or in Northern Australia, or as tactical reserves, in Rabaul or Koepang, or just as strategic assets, in Truk or Surabaya. Since I don’t want to commit too many units to the front before I am done with China, and I don’t think I really need a strategic reserve to counter invade right now, I think those divisions will go to depots close to the front.

I might have a division in Kwajalein, two around Rabaul (or in Manus) and one in Ambon. Let us sweep the mines, mend the disruption and decide in a few days.

Fortunes at sea

The transport task force on its way to Darwin turned to be a cruiser squadron, three cruisers (Houston, Canberra and Perth), and five destroyers. I had two task forces ready to intercept: the cruisers returning from the Gulf of Carpentaria, and a larger one, around battleships Ise and Hyuga, sailing south from Koepang.

Unfortunately, the former, and smaller, and low on ammo, TF got to intercept. It was not the empire’s finest hour, but we did hold our own.

Our cruisers will now return to Koepang to resupply, and our battleships are chasing the enemy. If we can catch them before they rearm, we have a good chance to finish them.

Meanwhile, over Darwin, five Kittyhawks were traded for one Oscar. I suspect those are the fighters that used to patrol over Port Moresby and Buna.

Historicity, China falling and Palembang denied

There was yet another discussion about historicity on the forum today (QBall’s thread on Palembang fortress). As often, it revolved around the gameyness of China, and Palembang, and ended up with a discussion of what constitutes “historical play”. This sent me wondering about how “history minded” I am.

I suppose the fact I am going for China (how dare I!), and am restraining my ship building, puts me into the “fantasy JFB” category. And while I am here, I must probably confess that whereas I am interested in history and have been wargaming for over 30 years, I am not a big fan of military history, and never much read about the Pacific war. I can only hope that my opponent, who obviously knows a lot about this era, still has a good time playing this game (and I promise to do my JFB duty, and have my cities bombed to chalk in 1944 and 1945).

On the other hand, I can’t help finding this game has a very realistic feeling. I believe I know China, and the war there has a very good “geography” feeling (well, except the Turkestan highway from Paotow to Hami and the fast roads from Lanchow to Kiuchuan). Another thing I really like is the way the game forces me to think : sometimes needing to see the big picture (for instance when I need to choose where those divisions in Bataan must go), sometimes getting drowned in a sea of silly details (like planning squadron rotations). I believe this is quite real, and historical.

We like to imagine wartime armies, or similar hierarchical organizations as efficient machines, where the leaders care about the “big picture”, and have staffs efficiently taking care of the implementation, and local commanders handling the details, just as efficiently. I believe this is wrong. Most of the time, leadership is about switching from one scale to another, handling details without losing sight of the strategy.

So perhaps, the real success of this game, lies less in the fact that the technical specs of planes are correct, the OOB is real, and home rules and gentleman agreement force us to play as the books we read told us we should play, but in the chaotic complexity of the system, which forces one to get involved in everything, take care of many details, overlook others, and some time lose the strategic focus, just like the real commanders sometime did (but wouldn’t tell you in the books they wrote after the war, which always smell of good discipline and boot polish).

I used to believe in the virtues of Tracker, excel sheets and other planning tools. I am somehow turning away from them now: by handling all the numbers in our place, they somehow make the game less real.

Maybe historical play is more about the way we play and plan, than the actual moves we make.

Hi Greyjoy, Thanks a lot for reading. I really like writing this AAR. Actually I sometimes wonder if I write this AAR because I play the game, or the other way around… I used to follow your opponent, to see what a devious AFB might have in store for a clueless emperor like me. But I’ve now switched to yours. I will comment when my memories of your opponent plans fade away (it shouldn’t take too long, old men, you know…)

May 23rd 1942

Small fish

Off the coast of Northern Australia, our battleship task force replaced the cruisers that fought yesterday, and are now on their way to Koepang to replenish. Unfortunately, instead of following the Australian cruisers we fought yesterday, on their way to Darwin, they went for a retreating destroyer, DD Jupiter, that was probably convoying CL Perth away when she sank.

Two inconclusive battles were fought, during which Jupiter took a number of shells. She is on fire, and we will probably finish her tomorrow. Then, we will turn back to Darwin, where we hope to catch the enemy unloading.

The new Port Blair

For several days, sweeps over Port Blair found no enemy CAP. Today, we bombed the airfield, and found Martletts (shot five down) Warhawks (shot three), and P-38E, which seem immune to my cannons and machine guns.

The bombing part of the raid went fine, and several Swordfishes and Dauntlesses were destroyed on the ground.

The plane mix in Port Blair is interesting. No Hurricanes were found, I suspect they are licking their wounds in Burma. We still have P38 and P40, but the British carriers that were detected a week ago seem to have dropped some of their squadrons there. This is encouraging, as it suggests the RAF is low on fighters, and needs to use carrier squadrons to fill first line slots.

I now have lots of bases in range of Port Blair, and can sweep and bomb around the clock. This was a costly battle, but I believe we are winning it. I want to try the same in the other Port: Moresby.

The longest hump

Tsuyung fell today after a very long siege. Eight units, including two RAF base forces, retreated into the mountains, towards Chungking. I believe the Allies have transports that can reach Kunming, the last KMT base in the area, but the supply flow from Burma must be very low now.

The Chinese are now down to eight bases. In Kunming, we are still not getting 1:1 odds. The siege will probably drag on, like in Tsuyung. On the other end of the continent, Kashgar will probably fall very soon. A tank regiment is one hex behind, chasing a separate brigade.

In Chungking, I now have 4400 AV, against 3400 enemies. Artillery will arrive in about a week. I am considering attacking to try and reduce the forts, now at level six. This will be costly, but I think it will help with the bombardment.

Workload has been a bit unreal this week, which means less time for the game and the AAR. I just sent the 30th of May to my opponent, and here’s a brief catch up turn.

May 24th 1942

Jupiter best and greatest

Off Derby, DD Jupiter finally met her fate, after a long night chase.

We spotted her, crossed her T, but she managed to disengage before we were in firing range. We then overtook her, but her captain escaped. Finally, we managed to cross her T at 8000 yards, and set her on fire. She still broke off, but was overtaken again, and sunk. A brave ship.

On to Darwin, where the transports spotted a few days ago should be unloading.

Mad Moresby

Since most of my fighter squadrons in Rabaul were rested, I tried to sweep Port Moresby today. We lost a dozen fighters to half as many enemies. This seems to help reducing the bombing runs over Buna and my bases in the region, but the air war is getting quite costly for the Japanese.

I am losing more planes than the Allies, fighters mostly, but also bombers to ops, pools are very low, and whereas I am getting lots of trained pilots, I am losing quite a few as well. Overall losses are 2350 planes, for 2250 enemies.

I am not sure I quite understand the consequences of this early war. At some point, I suppose I need large plane and pilot pools to defend against late war allied offensives, often with subpar airframes. But right now, I have the feeling that and intense air campaign benefit the Empire, by keeping the Allies on defense.

Pockets and more pockets

The Chinese base force that once defended Hami was eliminated today. Around Nanchang, a small stack was defeated again. I am slowly eliminating all the small KMT units in northern and eastern China. Some of them will reappear in Chungking, I am sure, but I think I can afford that, as they will be inexperienced and unsupplied.

In Chungking, air bombardment is claiming a handful of squads every day. My artillery is not doing very good, because of the high fort levels, probably. I might need to try a deliberate attack at some point, to try to reduce the forts. It will be costly, but if it makes the artillery more efficient, it will be worth the losses.

My artillery stack is now past Kweiyang, and will be in Chungking in a week. The war in China is getting slow, I don’t think I can help it.

My bombing runs over Port Blair are now unopposed. Enemy fighters seem to have been relocated to Akyab, sweeping the Guard division that has taken position on the road to India. Akyab has been heavily reinforced. I suspect Cox Bazaar is being built as well. I am fine with this, since I don’t intend to attack India before China falls.

In Port Blair, we have been destroying Martlets on the ground. Airfield and port damage is around 15%. More bombing is needed to interdict the island, but I have good hope to achieve this. I also have started naval bombardment from Georgetown. Almost twenty enemy units are reported in Port Blair. I want to see to which extent a protracted bombardment campaign can reduce them.

One less

Kashgar was captured today. The infantry brigade defending it surrendered at first try. We now hold all the bases in western China, and no enemy units are reported west of Lanchow, or north of Sian.

In Southern China the units retreated from Kukong were defeated once more today, and retreated north of Canton. My two brigades from Kukong are now marching on Wuchow. A regiment from Canton has been ordered to pursue the units that retreated today.

The Allies only hold seven bases in China now. Chungking and Changsha are under siege, and Kunming is slowly being reduced (forts are level two now). In the south, Kweilin and Tuyun are left alone, but we are marching on Wuchow, and then Liuchow.

May 26th 1942

The only significant action today was the bombardment of Darwin. We caught six enemy cargoes and a tanker unloading. All were sunk. Later that night, the naval bombardment achieved decent results.

So far, the only enemy troops detected in Darwin are the coastal guns and a base force. An infantry regiment in Koepang is ready to embark on a fast transport task force. Several paratroop units are in Koepang too, just in case.

I understand it is pretty late for an invasion of Darwin, but since the place seems weakly held.

Canberra was reported sunk that day. Perth apparently sank, or was scuttled, the next day, and Jupiter was caught by my surface forces three days ago.

The rest of this task force (Houston, Tjerk Hiddes, Vendetta, Hotspur and Griffin) was found near Cairns today, by a submarine. Houston took one torpedo and was left listing. She is reported as sunk, which is plausible, given the fact she had been damaged a week before.

That would be my fourth enemy cruiser, after New Orleans in Pearl Harbor, Pensacola in December in Ambon, and Canberra a week ago. CA Maya is the only cruiser I have lost so far.

Chungking, tough times

Behind level six forts, the defenders of Chungking are very difficult to get at. Today, we launched a deliberate attack, meant to reduce the forts before the artillery arrives. We did reduce them to level five, but it was very costly.

I have lost about 60 squads and devices, same as the enemy. This is fine. However, disablements and disruption are huge. My raw assault value went down by a third, from 4500 to 3000, and disruption is over 80 for most of my infantry divisions. But we did take that fort level, and will have to do it again in a week or so, to further reduce the forts. This is going to take a while.

In Kunming, we took another fort level away. They are down to level one forts, this is looking good.

May 28th 1942

Changsha instead

Enemy fighters reappeared over Chungking, recently. They are mostly Chinese planes, but also a fresh squadron of P40-E which short down a dozen of Helens. I am ordering sweeps, and have been sending my bombers to Changsha instead. Here is the main run.

In Chungking, a probing bombardment revealed enemy AV around 3300, mine are at 3000. This confirms the ground losses from yesterday, 400 enemy squads disabled, and over 1500 on my side. I will recover faster, though, and my artillery is three days away.

All my troops are good quality, about 30% prepped for Chungking. I was surprised by the absence of a supply minus for the KMT. Disruption, on my side, most certainly results from the forts.

I'm playing the Allies in my other PBEM, Scenario 2 and having my ass handed to me in China by Oct. 42. Chungking has been under siege for some time and bombed daily, yet supply levels for the defenders seem to remain constant. I've just lost Chengtu though, so this may spell the end for Chungking as well. One interesting note, both Chengtu and Chungking had small reserves of fuel. I haven't been checking tracker, but I should see if it's enough for the HI to be producing supply. I have no access to fuel that I'm aware of, unless it is somehow migrating from Ledo. This might explain why Chungking appears not to be low on supply in your game.

I think there is a combination of factors. I don't believe the HI can produce, since it is an all or nothing affair, and you need quite a bit of fuel for it to work. Light industry will produce until resource stocks die away, since no resources are produced while the base is besieged. Also, Chungking has 400 "free lunch" supplies produced daily, which will not keep every one in shape, but means you never get to the zero supply point, where AV is quartered and all that.

We are still pretty early in the war. In most AAR I've read, the supply situation in China only gets really bad in August, and my opponent most certainly saw the attack on Chungking coming, so he probably stockpiled supplies (I have noticed he did this for several bases I captured). Yet, I have noticed my bombers don't get attacked by flak anymore, which, I'm told, is a telltale sign.

I suspect attacking every day, even with a few units bombarding, is essential. When you bombard, you force supply expenditure through counter battery fire, eating up reserves. I will also try to bomb the airfield, and perhaps strat bomb the city.

Sorry, dear reader, not much happening in the war. I should fill the void with some bright and provocative comments about the game, war, history, or life, but it also happen that I am a bit overworked. Bear with me, dear reader, it gets a bit better in a couple of days…May 29th 1942

Port Blair by night

A small task force, around BB Haruna, bombarded Port Blair this morning. I should have used naval bombardment more, it sort of works.

During the day, sweeps found nothing, and Sallies from Moulmein dig a few more holes into the runway, losing one plane to flak.

I don’t know how long it should take, but I suspect I can do a pretty good job starving Port Blair.

Decline of Kunming

The two divisions attacking Kunming were reinforced today by two regiments from Tsuyung. Losses are still even, and odds fail to reach 1:1, but the battle is shifting. I don’t think Kunming can hold more than a week now.

The artillery is a few days away. Infantry is resting, and we are restoring about 100 AV a day. I am looking for the best way to repair troops in harm’s way. So far, it seems rest mode doesn”t really work, but reserve seems promising. I will comment more about it in a while.

Today’s bombardment achieved better results than usual. I used to lose a dozen squads, for half a dozen enemies. Today, we both lost half a dozen. I wonder whether deliberate attacks act as some form of recon, which improve artillery precision.

The artillery is a few days away. Infantry is resting, and we are restoring about 100 AV a day. I am looking for the best way to repair troops in harm’s way. So far, it seems rest mode doesn”t really work, but reserve seems promising. I will comment more about it in a while.

Reserve does work a bit in contested hexes. The other trick I learned recently is to break divisions into parts, thus getting 3x replacements instead of 1x each time they are given. It does seem to speed things up if you actually lost troops. Not sure about with disabled squads. Army level HQs and lots of supply.

_____________________________

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

I have tried the “split division” trick a couple of times in this game, and was underwhelmed. I believe, the reason is that at this point most of my losses are disablements and splitting units work improves the replacement rate of lost devices.

For what I have noticed, repairing disabled squads follow a similar process to fatigue recovery. You need support, supplies, and if possible leaders with good administrative ratings (apparently, those provide bonuses to all units in the hex). I don’t think HQ help because they are HQ, but just because they have lots of support.

One trick I have seen Rader use in his game against GreyJoy was to have his major stacks (eg the big ones going for Singapore at the beginning of the game) include lot of noncombatants, like base forces and air support units. This probably speeds up recovery. Artillery units tend to provide a lot of support too.

This suggests that HQ are best used in front line duty, to help an attacking stack recover, or to make a defending stack last longer.

May 30th 1942

Coral sea pursuits

Enemy ships were detected in Luganville yesterday, and a submarine was sent to investigate. She missed DE Edsall, and received two hits in return. A surface task force was ordered to bombard the harbor, with a little luck, we will catch a couple of ships unloading there.

Near Horn Island, a cruiser squadron detached from KB was chasing an enemy task force. It was probably spotted before the interception could take place. The enemy retreated towards Normanton and enemy dive bombers tried to attack my ships, with little success.

In Darwin, two battleships bombarded the port. We are landing tomorrow.

More Chungking

The big guns arrived in Chungking today. Although they didn’t participate in the attack, we had much better results than usual. Somehow, it seems the total number of guns in the hex play a large role in the outcome of bombardment.

Today, this has become my longest game. My very first campaign had ended on the 29th of May. Overall, I have been playing AE for about two years now, and have been involved in PBEM for twenty two months. This specific game began at the end of February, and we played about six months of war in seven and a half month. At this rate, the war should last until late 2016.

I am often wondering what influence AE has on my real life (apart from taking a lot of my free time). Curiously, this game did not get me interested in naval warfare, or the Pacific War. I do like history, but am not too fond of militaria, or WWII. The next history book I intend to read is Michelet’s History of the French Revolution, and then probably Saint Simon’s memoirs.

Yet, I can feel a distinct influence of AE in the way I think about problems at work. Somehow, AE forces one to keep the “big picture” in mind, and stick to one’s plan, despite all side stories, and the details that must be attended to. Over the last 18 months, I believe I have improved my ability to define and follow long term goals.

Another influence, not quite of AE, but of the community, is the honor system. You can’t play such a long game if you don’t respect your opponent, trust him to use common sense and not exploit every trick he can find, and play by the same personal standards. And of course, if you write an AAR, you trust him not to peek. Recently, I have noticed this “grows” on my real life, which is surprising if you consider that business relations tend not to be honor driven.

This might actually be what I like most about AE: in an increasingly individualistic and cynical business environment, trying to think of your competitors, your customers, or the people you work with, the way you think of your AE opponent provides a very refreshing perspective.

I have tried the “split division” trick a couple of times in this game, and was underwhelmed. I believe, the reason is that at this point most of my losses are disablements and splitting units work improves the replacement rate of lost devices.

For what I have noticed, repairing disabled squads follow a similar process to fatigue recovery. You need support, supplies, and if possible leaders with good administrative ratings (apparently, those provide bonuses to all units in the hex). I don’t think HQ help because they are HQ, but just because they have lots of support.

One trick I have seen Rader use in his game against GreyJoy was to have his major stacks (eg the big ones going for Singapore at the beginning of the game) include lot of noncombatants, like base forces and air support units. This probably speeds up recovery. Artillery units tend to provide a lot of support too.

This suggests that HQ are best used in front line duty, to help an attacking stack recover, or to make a defending stack last longer.

Great summary. Rader is a master of logistic and game mechanics optimization. I support all of the above from my experience. I have seen the effect of having that support work to increase repair of disabled units with the big naval base forces.

quote:

AE, and real life

Today, this has become my longest game. My very first campaign had ended on the 29th of May. Overall, I have been playing AE for about two years now, and have been involved in PBEM for twenty two months. This specific game began at the end of February, and we played about six months of war in seven and a half month. At this rate, the war should last until late 2016.

I am often wondering what influence AE has on my real life (apart from taking a lot of my free time). Curiously, this game did not get me interested in naval warfare, or the Pacific War. I do like history, but am not too fond of militaria, or WWII. The next history book I intend to read is Michelet’s History of the French Revolution, and then probably Saint Simon’s memoirs.

Yet, I can feel a distinct influence of AE in the way I think about problems at work. Somehow, AE forces one to keep the “big picture” in mind, and stick to one’s plan, despite all side stories, and the details that must be attended to. Over the last 18 months, I believe I have improved my ability to define and follow long term goals.

Another influence, not quite of AE, but of the community, is the honor system. You can’t play such a long game if you don’t respect your opponent, trust him to use common sense and not exploit every trick he can find, and play by the same personal standards. And of course, if you write an AAR, you trust him not to peek. Recently, I have noticed this “grows” on my real life, which is surprising if you consider that business relations tend not to be honor driven.

This might actually be what I like most about AE: in an increasingly individualistic and cynical business environment, trying to think of your competitors, your customers, or the people you work with, the way you think of your AE opponent provides a very refreshing perspective.

Great description. I find this game is like the effect good literature has on my life. I recently finished the 5th Game of Thrones book (after the discussions of them in Greyjoy's AAR of his game with radar got me interested) and even though I haven't been reading them for a few weeks, I still find my self imagining situations in relation to the books. How the stratification of different layers of society move fluidly through each other, back and forth, how honor and deceit get all tangled together and good people get taken down for holding to their 'principles' while others snake their way through life with no scruples. How things smell, everywhere, all of the time.

This game makes me think about projects and outcomes in a big picture way, and yes, about integrity. As a photographer each image now seems a bit like the clicks on the keyboard, one more picture added to the array that get me toward the larger goal of describing something concisely. More than that it activates a part of my brain that I think I need, to put things in order, to effect outcomes, to plan and achieve but also to be involved in a community that supports and recognizes each other's achievements. It's much like the chess community I was involved with as a young person. Competitive but supportive and interested in everyone getting better all of the time. Also, though, in the well played game itself, the beauty of concise, well planned and executed strategies.

_____________________________

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

I really like the comparison with litterature. Something in this game reminds one of those long series of novels, which you read, read again, and restart, and never want to finish. I have been reading Proust for over 25 years now, read the first novel (Swann's way) more than 10 times probably, but never dared open the last one, lest I might "be done with it". The early game also has something in common with those very good works (from Cervantes to Shakespeare) that you read again and again, and seem a different book every time.

There is a Proust quote that describes this (there's a Proust quote for pretty much everything, in fact)

"the ingenuity of the first novelist lay in his understanding that, as the picture was the one essential element in the complicated structure of our emotions, so that simplification of it which consisted in the suppression, pure and simple, of 'real' people would be a decided improvement"

I think this is the way the game works for me. Somehow, it provides an abstract description of reality which might be more interesting than the "real thing" (which was ugly, bloody, immoral, and so on)...

I am drowning in work, these days. Turn rate has gone down from six turns per week to three or four. I am trying hard to keep with a turn every other day, and managing it so far, but the AAR is lagging behind, a collateral victim to the work frenzy. And don’t even think, dear reader, this is a good thing, on a personal level. Most of the work is just meant to help me pay the new taxes we’re getting this year… Welcome to Europe!

Anyway, I called this evening off, so here is a turn, written while enjoying some vintage port (Graham Tawny 10 years old, I feel like a character in a Jane Austen novel…)

May 31st, 1942

Welcome to Australia

For a couple of weeks, I had been recceing Darwin, and sweeping Darwin, and bombarding Darwin, from the air, and the sea. And, much to my surprise, Darwin was lightly defended. So, it was decided that an infantry regiment, on a fast transport, and a heavy bombardment the day before, would do the job. Loud and clear, eh?

Well… The first attack didn’t go that well. I don’t know where those 500 guns came from, but they were here

Fiasco is the word I am looking for… The 9th Infantry is most certainly toast. DD Tachekaze (something-wind) was sunk, Yamaguro was scuttled, and I am praying that most of my cruisers make it back to Koepang.

Can we land in Derby, or Broome, now that Darwin seems off limits? I don’t know. Truscott is definitely doable, and tanks could wreck a lot of damage from there, but I’d rather have Derby to land infantry. I need to think about it, and I am probably not in the best of moods to achieve this now.

Happy China

Whereas nothing, like something, happens everywhere, not everything can go wrong every day…

In Kunming, the forts are now down to level zero, and enemy AV, from almost 500, is now down to 200. Western China is about to fall, methink.

In Chungking, the artillery is clearly making a difference, here are the bombardment results for today:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo Wow! How did he hide all those units from you in Darwin? I think the commander of your recon units needs to join his ancestors ...

I think the commander of this commander needs to read the right paragraphs of the manual, too... Thinking about it, I probably did not really recon the place: I flew a couple of high altitude missions a week ago, which detected two units. Then I mostly swept, and bombed little, which didn't improve, and I trusted the low response to bombardment as an indicator that very few guns were present.

Yesterday was a holiday here, and I decided this morning that I wouldn’t work today. This means four days off, with a lot of rain on the weather forecast, the perfect time to catch up with this AAR, that is!

June 1st 1942

Welcome to Australia, the day after

After the catastrophic landings yesterday, there was little hope that the ninth infantry regiment would survive the counterattack today. And it fact, it did not.

At sea, my retreating ships managed to avoid enemy bombers and submarines. Several cruisers and destroyers are still on fire, CA Suzuya is probably doomed, but most of the others will make it to Koepang and then to Singapore.

I have ordered my bombardment task force to pay a visit to Derby in Broome, to see what lies there, but the heavy reinforcements found in Darwin (those tanks, especially) suggest that the expedition to the northern coast should probably be cancelled. I could certainly take Exmouth and Port Hedland, even establish a beachhead in Truscott, but this would probably be a bit expensive, and I am not sure I see the strategic benefit. The northern expedition was meant to divert pressure from New Guinea, not to pin the IJA further from its bases.

I am taking a few days to think about it, but in all likeliness, I will not go for Australia in the near future.

And now, Buna

For several weeks, Australian troops from Port Moresby have been reinforcing Buna, over the Kokda trail. Today, they attacked with a brigade and a battalion. The eleventh Garrison Unit managed to hold, but the base will most certainly fall tomorrow.

This is an almost orderly retreat. All the air support, engineers and paratroops have been evacuated by air, and all the bases to the north have been captured. The 11th Garrison will retreat over the jungle towards Salamaua, and reinforcements are moving towards Hansa Bay, Madang, and Lae.

I do realize I should have gone for Port Moresby earlier, and having the Allies on the offensive in New Guinea on the first of June 1942 is not good news. On the other hand, I am quite happy with a protracted war in the jungles of New Guinea. This is as far from the centre as possible, the few roads that exist favor the Japanese, and I have more and better air bases in the area.

If the Australians decide to pursue, after they captured Buna, and I believe they will, I might not be able to hold them in Salamaua, but I believe I can block them with significant forces (a division, that is), in Wau and Lae can be held. Such a slow battle in New Guinea would probably buy me the time to finish China and launch an offensive in Burma.

Again, I need to think about it. More about that in the next installments.

From Port Blair to Magwe

It seems that my opponent has given up on Port Blair. Sweeps find no enemy fighters, and naval and air bombardment are keeping the airfield and the port in bad shape. There are seventeen enemy units in Port Blair, about 30 000 troops, 300 vehicles and as many guns, all in malaria zone. I will try to cordon the island, and bomb around the clock. Those seventeen units probably represent a significant part of the Commonwealth forces in the area, and suppressing them will complicate the defense of India and the conquest of Burma.

In the meantime, the Allies seem to concentrate on Burma. Magwe was swept several times, by P38-E notably, and bombed inconclusively. I need more air support and planes in the area. Some AA units have arrived, but my air defenses are still insufficient. AA units, engineers and air support from China are marching in, and will be there in a month or two.

On the ground, Burma is decently reinforced. I have a regiment in Warazup, in the far north, and the Imperial Guard division in reserve in Katha. In Central Burma, I have a tank division and a RTA division in Mandalay, and the 6th Guards and artillery in Magwe. Finally, the 5th Guards, now over 500 AV strong, is entrenched on the border, facing Akyab, with a tank brigade in second line.

As the western road to China opens, reinforcements will begin to pour in.

Western ventures

Kunming fell today. The enemy retreated east, towards China, not Burma, that is. The road between Tsuyung and Kunming is garrisoned and I believe I can prevent the Chinese from escaping to India. The fall of Kunming opens the road to Burma, which AA units and support troops from China will now follow.

The KMT only holds six bases, Chungking and Changsha, both under siege, and the four southern cities of Wuchow, Liuchow, Kweilin and Tuyun. I am marching on Wuchow, and ready to besiege Kweilin.

Our AV is moving up, so is the enemy, as destroyed units come back, probably. Forts are still level five. I will probably attack again next week, to take another level away. It is costly, but that’s the only way I know.

Thoughts

We are in June, the fiasco in Darwin, and the impending Allied reconquest of Buna come as useful reminders of what the Empire can, and cannot achieve.

In this game, my main strategic objective is China. I want to capture the country, take the KMT off the game, and use the place as a rear base for the rest of the war. So far, everything is fine. The northern half of the country and most of the east are now free of enemy presence. A large fraction of enemy forces (over 31 000 combat squads) were destroyed, and remaining units are pocketed and will not flee. I have no idea how long the capture of Chungking will take, might be weeks, or months.

After China, the next important theater is Burma. Right now, I want to build my defenses, and prevent an early attack. I believe the units stranded in Port Blair are helping. Then, after China falls, I want to march into India, and use this campaign to delay Allied advance in the Pacific. To achieve this, the East Indies and the coast from Singapore to Ambon must be held with sufficient forces to discourage any attempt to turn Burma.

So, what about the South Pacific and Australia? The goal is to let the war take place there, and remain there for as long as possible. A large part of my navy, air force, and ground troops can, and will, be used in the process.

Sounds like a solid plan Francois. I'm looking forward to seeing how you contain the Allied advance in New Guinea. I know you've mentioned you're much more comfortable with the land war than naval operations, but it's going to be interesting seeing how you perform out of your comfort zone so to speak.

Darwin will be hard to suppress by air alone, so I'd plan my defence of Timor and area accordingly expecting strong Allied air attacks on your airbases in late 42 if your opponent cares to go this route.

I really enjoy your AAR these days and you excude a quiet confidence in your ability to steer the war in a direction of your choosing. Going to be fun to follow as things heat up.

Buna fell today, unsurprisingly. The 11th garrison unit retreated north, towards Salamaua, and some of the Australian units are pursuing. I believe they need about three weeks to get to Salamaua, more if I bomb them from the air. Salamaua will be reinforce by air, and from the sea. Let us see if we can stop them there…

Also, we captured Finschafen. Terapo is the last enemy base in the region.

Magwe again

The enemy had a bad day over Magwe. In the morning, his sweeps cost him a few P40. In the afternoon, his bombers flew unescorted, and half a dozen of them were shot down. P38E reappeared over Magwe, and cost me a few more Oscars. Fortunately, their high service rating prevent them from flying often, and they seem to suffer from ops losses.

Air bombardment is claiming a dozen more squads every day. Our raids are met by very little flak, which suggests the supply situation is very bad.

I am very curious about the battle in Chungking. In all likeliness, the city will soon sport a very high AV, as more destroyed units respawn. I understand those will be very bad troops, but I wonder whether their numbers can compensate for their low quality. Right now, I am going on with the bombardment, and will probably try another deliberate attack in a week or so.

Elsewhere in China, I am mopping the KMT away.

More thoughts

Hi Joseph,

I am relatively optimistic about Timor. I have quite a few troops there, an Air HQ, good planes, and will use the base to bombard the coastal bases in North Australia. This, together with the difficulty to supply Darwin overland that several players have noted, should make attempts to suppress the base pretty difficult. I am also considering reforming a mini-KB (around the surviving CVE CVL, CV Junyo now in Singapore, and the Hiyo which should arrive in a month), and base it around Macassar, to fend off enemy attempts in the region.

As for New Guinea, I am much less confident. In Buna, the enemy air attacks have made the base almost impossible to supply, and I don’t know whether supplying units overland in the jungle works. It should cut both ways, though, and my opponent will face the same difficulties.

Steering the war in directions of one’s choosing sounds like a very good definition of strategy. Whether I can manage it remains to be seen, but I firmly believe this is what this game is all about.

Air bombardment is claiming a dozen more squads every day. Our raids are met by very little flak, which suggests the supply situation is very bad.

I am very curious about the battle in Chungking. In all likeliness, the city will soon sport a very high AV, as more destroyed units respawn. I understand those will be very bad troops, but I wonder whether their numbers can compensate for their low quality. Right now, I am going on with the bombardment, and will probably try another deliberate attack in a week or so.

Let me interject my thoughts here ... I'm not a fan of bombardment attacks against chinese troops. Air/Sea bombardment yes, but not LCU bombaardment attacks. My opinion is that you give the chinese troops too much exp for the amount of damage that you inflict. Those troops re-appearing are coming in without supply cost, but they are arriving with 20 -30 exp. Very low. however, that also means that they gain exp really easy. I've seen chinese troops gain 2 - 5 EXP / day withstanding bombardment attacks. Granted you keep their disruption high and morale low. I prefer to do that with air bombardments which don't seem to give them any exp.

So far, my strategy was the same as the one I followed in Bataan, and in Changsha. Bombard, every day, to disable the enemy in a painless way. With overwhelming numbers, you can disable about 50 squads per day, and some 20 more from the air. Overall, that would be about 2000 AV a month. If we consider that, through respawning, Chungking will sooner or later hold about 8000 AV, three or four months of bombardment might be enough to reduce the place. At that point, enemy experience wouldn’t really matter, as most of their troops would be disabled. Also, the bombardment would probably keep the supply levels down (keep in mind Chungking has quite a bit of “magic supplies”), making disablements from fatigue a possibility as time goes by.

What you are suggesting provides a shorter path to victory. By just bombing from the air, I will have less disablements, but high disruption, and enemy experience will remain low. This means I can probably attack and succeed with worse raw AV ratios. The only question would then be supplies. If air bombing doesn’t destroy enough supplies, I might allow the Chinese to actually repair disablements, or even replace some squads and devices.

I will try a deliberate attack soon (that would be the ninth of June, since this game is a few days past the AAR), and see what I get in terms of fort reduction, enemy AV, and combat modifiers.

We had pretty good bombardment results today, but as you might notice, Chinese AV have gone from 3600 to 3900 over the last three days, that’s respawning for you, gaijins. What this is supposed to model now that China is pretty much all under Japanese control, and Chungking is under siege, is beyond me, but I’ll be a good JFB and agree that the very few departures from reason and historical plausibility the game allows all benefit Japan, and have been left in the game to prevent the war from ending in 1943 (as, we all know, happened historically)

Set a couple of your bomber groups to target the airfield, that will destroy a lot of supply. The rest of the bombers should be ground attack. When I'm bombing chinese forts like this, I like to have +6 bomber airgroups (~200 bombers). 2 groups on airfield, the rest on ground attack.

Not sure if you've peeked on the Allied side in a H to H game, but if I remember correctly the Chinese seem come back at about 40 exp. Much better than I had thought. It wouldn't take long to get them fit with the daily bombardments, but if you're taking out 30-60 squads a day, this won't matter too much anyway. Pax is right on with the air bombing advice. Keep hitting the troops on the ground as well as the fields. You make him use more supply healing dialed troops than you can ever get in supply attacks from bombing.

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"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill